This is Hallowern
by Liast
Summary: What is Halloween? Let's see how the heroes of Land of Dawn celebrate their Halloween. Um... well, not reallly. Let's see how they prepare for Halloween.


"What is this place?" A childlike voice filled with wonder made Alucard and Balmond turned their head toward the stage. From behind the curtains, Nana appeared. They were breathless, like they were just running from angry Lord. "One, two, three, four, five, wow, look at all these pumpkins!"

"Whoa!"

"Hey, what's your name girl?" Balmond's rough voice startled them. He pointed to the little girl beside Nana.

"My name is Chang'e."

"I never saw you before." Alucard said and Chang'e in turn looked at him.

"Zilong's little sister. She moved here some months ago."

"I'm Alucard and he's Balmond. Don't be afraid of him. He may looks like a demon." Alucard, the demon hunter, paused for dramatic effect.

Chang'e looked beetwen Alucard and Balmond, wide eyed, waited for the 'but' that never came.

"But …?"

"No but. He's really a demon."

"Ghahaha!" Chang'e shrieked. And she screamed louder when Balmond swang his huge axe beside him. "Taste the fury of hell!"

"You scared her." The cat elf sighed. She tried to calmed Chang'e as she was about to cry.

"Why do humans cry?" Alucard wonder for a moment.

"Ask yourself. You are human."

"No. I'm fifty percent human. And fifty percent demon."

"Since when?" Balmond wrinkled his nose.

"Since Halloween is coming."

"What is Halloween?" Chang'e asked, more intrigued than scared now, after being calmed by Nana.

"A festival," Alucard said as he patted a statue made of bones. He hoped that was fake, not that he was scared of bones hanging around like that. No. Maybe. Just a little bit. "People dress up as something they're not, went to other's houses, say trick or treat, and get lots of sweets afterward. You'll like it."

"But you always dress as something you're not," Balmond remarked. "You dress as if you're a great hero."

"I am a great hero."

"Not really. No."

"Anyway. What are you two doing here? The Halloween party is next week and this hall is off limit for others who are not on decoration team."

"What? Nobody told me that we'll have a party here. I can make different kind of pumpkins for this."

Alucard just poked her head and sang. "That's why we never told you."

"I'm gonna get angry if you poked me again."

"Umm … it looks like we may be lost." Chang'e answered Alucard's previous question.

"Lost?" Alucard blinked. And he looked at Nana. "You practically lives here."

"I was panicked."

"You reckless fool." Balmond sighed. "Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere that's far away from the big bad wolf-"

"Quick, run! Roger is coming."

And so they ran. From a middle aged werewolf that looked angrier that usual. Who suddenly appeared from behind the black curtains of the stage.

"Where are they?!" Roger roared at Alucard and Balmond, who just blinked at him in returned. "Gah! You will also be cursed!"

And he too, left as fast as he appeared.

"What was that?" The so called demon hunter finally said.

"Who knows." And the demon answered. "Kids nowdays."

"Oh yeah, what about your costume?"

"All is ready."

"Really? I bet it's not as good as mine."

Balmond smirked. "You bet."

"Really tho, what will you wear?"

"It doesn't matter." Alucard look at him from the corner of his eyes. "I'm gonna be Natalia."

Alucard laughed untill he cough and his stomach hurt, he heard what Balmond said afterward.

"You won't know if I come or not, I can be here partying with you all, or I can be home, doing whatever I want. I'm gonna be invisible anyway."

"That's not how it work." And it was Balmond's turn to laugh.

"Well, I want to check if another Jack O'lantern was ready."

"Get lost, then."

"No. I'll be back."

"No. Get lost."

Walked through the jaw bones of what looks like a giant dragon skull, Alucard really prayed that the decorations are fakes. The people of Land of Dawn not really cared about Halloween before, so Halloween party was not that big.

Then Selena came. A lunatic girl that lived to parties. It started only after Selena became less of a threat to their society – and more threat to their sanities that she took their annual Halloween party to a whole new level.

So, it was not an understatement that Alucard really prayed that dripping fountain in the center was not actual blood from Alice's stashes, or the skulls and bones along the wall was not actual animal's skeletons that she borrowed from Vexana. Let's just hoped that for the next days, Selena would not asked Lord of the Seven Seas to summon a giant Kraken to fill the still empty roof of this hall.

'Bane couldn't summon a Kraken, right?'

"Alucard." A dual colored sorcerer said his name from behind a pile of huge pumpkins.

"Gord. How's it going?"

"There is no time to chit chat. Quick, you carve this one."

"What? That's your job. You didn't even carved one yet today."

"I was busy. And now that you're here, I want to take a rest." And he dissappeared with his magic board.

Faced with so many huge pumpkin to be carved, Alucard unfastened his broad blade from the holster and started to swang it forward. He thought that would be easy, but it was not.

It was about an hour later that Gord came back from his impromptu break.

"I left you for an hour and you barely carved a horrible piece of a pumpkin?"

"Look at yourself."

Gord sighed. "There's a faster way to do that. Imagination is the driving force to the energy."

He backed up until they were about ten meters from the nearest pumpkin as tall as Alucard himself, drew his hands, and—

– blew up the pumpkin.

"Somehow," Alucard said, wiping bits of orange goo out of his face, "I should have seen that coming."

Let's just hope that the Halloween party this year wouldn't be as bad as Alucard's gooey appereance.


End file.
